Sounds in the Desert

Ammar Kammash, an amazing Jordanian artist has built a xylophone from nothing but desert stones.

To most ears, the desert might seem like a place of silence.

However, if you strain your ears enough, you can hear a melody rise up from right underneath your steps.

For artist Ammar Khammash the nature of Jordan is filled with music. And now he’s taking the sounds directly from nature to the public of Amman.

Khammash’s installation Secret Sounds of the Desert is a huge musical instrument made entirely of flints found in the desert. These stones are found in the geological formation of the Cretaceous period in the desert. The stones are attached to the xylophone as they’re found: Khammash doesn’t manipulate their shape in any way. But they produce musical notes to precision: so perfectly, in fact, that the instrument plays tuneful music.

Khammash writes in the Jordan Times that driving through the desert, the tires crunching on the flint, is “like a continuous keyboard of a strange musical instrument”. Khammash’s installation, Secret Sounds of the Desert, was a part of Amman’s Design Week and was open to the public in the city’s downtown area.

He expressed his discovery on Facebook asking,

“Are there one thousand dismantled pianos scattered for miles? An eternal melody in this remote land.”

About The Author

In 2007, I got into the organic food business and created the type of food I would eat, easy convenient organic food. What a find it was at that time! Must say that it was the stepping-stone to a new phase in my path. Then, I started using my new inspiration for eating in a healthy way and take it to an upper level. From eating consciously I stepped into the larger concept of living consciously and all what it could relate to. ILoveMe was born.
خلال العام 2007، دخلت إلى مجال العمل في قطاع الطعام العضوي، وبدأت أحضّر الطعام الّذي أودّ أكله، وهو الطعام العضوي السهل التحضير. وبالفعل، كان هذا الإكتشاف الجديد نقطة تحوّل في حياتي. بعد ذلك، بدأت باستثمار إلهامي الجديد بأكل طعام صحّي، والسعي لتطويره. ومن هنا، فهمت فعلياً ما معنى العيش بوعي وبصحّة واكتشفت كلّ ما يتعلّق بالأمرين. وتمّ إنشاء مدوّنة ILoveMe!